When you think of it the slant was desigined in 58? i think... but they are fun to have a straight 6 ... Are they any other production cars with a straight 6 (VW VR6 don't count) anymore? And cummins don't count either that is a detuned big truck engine.

Jeeps still use them don't they?

I know audi's still have a straight 5 model.

4.0L Ya i guess your right ... i guess modern cars don't need touque like a Jeep (or a 81 ram with 600lbs doing 75mph) lol. Looking at it the straight six lasted longer then any other engine config. 4 cyls came and went and came again. back in the day" straight 8's ... bet the torque was unreal on them..

BMW's use a straight 6.

_________________
My truck is a Frankenstein creation
Built from the dead carcasses of others
And brought BACK TO LIFE!

There are some new inline sixes out there, too. The Chevy Trailblazer uses a 4.2 inline six with 275 HP.
As far as older engines, remember that both BMW and Mercedes have had sixes that lean over like the slant.

they came up with this engine by accident or by true inspiration? I think that they were fiddlin around with producing an engine that could fit under the new fancy low body design and they run into the /6, wich turned out to be the longest production engine in the world. and one of the most long lasting too. If you come to think about it, that might be one of the reasons for chrysler big crisis, huh? if you produce an engine that runs, runs, runs forever and has pep and can be easily turned into a street "beast" as well as racing... what'd you do next?

_________________
Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

what'd you do next?

Go bankrupt producing a Turbine engine...


-D.Idiot

The 225 tooling was aging. It could have been reingineered and kept in production, but six volume sales were dropping. Most truck buyers were preferring V8s. The trend was towards more powerful and luxurious trucks, the 225 was too great in length for the Dakota. I see few new Ram trucks equipped with the V6.

I believe the Jeep 4.0 is still an option in the Wrangler, this is the last traditional inline hold out of the Big Three, but the Jeep motor was never an option in the Ram.

GM's new inline Vortec series could be adapted for passenger car use, the new GM 5 is pretty compact. Multi-port fuel injection fixes the fuel distribution of the inlines.

I clipped this from Allpar.com, some interesting stuff relevant to the discussion:

Lost slant six performance potential Dan Stern reported: The beancounters nixed the all-new 246 slant-six block, with proper side-fed hydraulic lifters, the high-swirl, fast-burn aluminum head in 1978, an the aluminum RG in 1963. The Slant Six had a lot of unrealized potential.

(Dan provided the following list of slant six possibilities, most of which were never produced):

A908, 1958-60: sand-cast aluminum 170 LG engine
A909, 1958-61: die-cast aluminum 170 LG engine
A785, 1959-60: Hyper-Pak 170 LG (Sold 1960-61 as a parts package)
A826, 1961: die-cast aluminum 225 RG engine (sold from '61-early '63)
A941, 1962-66: overhead cam 225 RG engine (in 1962!)
A106, 1964-65: G-RG engines with 180 and 246 c.i.d.
A218, 1966-69: 198 CID RG engine (sold starting 1970)
A227, 1967-68: 246 CID EG engine with hydraulic tappets using added oil gallery in cyl. block
A294, 1969: 4-cylinder derivative of G-RG engine (Preliminary designs of the 2.2?)
A396, 1973-74: 225 RG engine with 3rd-valve prechamber [a la Civic?]
A420, 1975-80: Diesel version of 225 engine
A431: 1976-79: Aluminum fast-burn cylinder head for 225 engine
A436, 1976-80: Reduced-weight 225 RG engine (hydraulic tappets - engine sold but weight was only cut by 12 pounds).
A463, 1977-78 225 RG turbocharged engine
A473, 1979-80: 225 engine with Bendix multi-point EFI
A489, 1980-83: 2.2 litre 4-cylinder derivative of A420 225 RG diesel engine.
A497, 1980-83: 2.2 litre 4-cyl turbodiesel version of A489 engine
A513, 1981-83: 225RG turbodiesel engine
(Source: A History of Chrysler Corporation's Slant-Six Engine, Volume II)

_________________
72 Scamp 225 /6, auto, radio delete, alum super six, cold air duct, pertronix ignitor II and flame thrower, 3.23 rear, 2.25" free flow exhaust

Just as an FYI, Dan Stern does post on here occasionally as SlantSixDan.

-D.Idiot

C&D reader's choice polls are, of course, complete nonsense, as they themselves admitted.
Many years ago, the Porsche 914/6 mid-engine easily won "best car under $XXX", "best new ???", blah.
Problem?
Yah. The car hadn't been sold yet. None of the happy voting morons had even seen one, let alone driven it.